


Excerpts from the Inquisition

by orphan_account



Series: Getting to Tomorrow [3]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst, Gen, Original Character Death(s), Past Violence, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 03:34:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3159683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Depending on your testimony today, you and your crew will be evaluated for re-integration into the current century. Do you understand and comply with the above, Mr. Singh?"</p><p>Excerpts from the official video log of Khan's Inquisition and uncovering the truth of his horrifying past. Please read warnings in author notes before proceeding!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excerpts from the Inquisition

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for talk of past violence, childhood trauma, death of children, PTSD undertones, and general war crimes and inhumane acts. Please venture forth with caution <3

Excerpts from the Inquisition of Khan Noonien Singh

_Interrogator – Federation Councilor Libita Yoi; Jury for Truth Certification – two telepaths and one empath from the Betazed Justice system (identity redacted); Starfleet Witnesses – Captain James Tiberius Kirk, Earth and Commander Spock, New Vulcan._

_This edited video contains excerpts that have been approved for public viewing, for the purpose of historical and cultural case study. It may only be made available at Starfleet/Federation maintained archives of knowledge. Prior clearance and authorization from Starfleet necessary for access._

*

[Khan walks in, flanked by nine guards but otherwise unbound. He takes the allotted seat in the middle of the room, facing a semi-circular dais of six officials, of which members of the jury are blurred out. His face does not betray any thought or emotion.]

Yoi: The purpose of this inquisition is to establish the whole exhaustive truth of the period known as the Eugenics Era from which few records have survived. The questions will be both general and personal, to gain insight not only from a historical viewpoint, but to also determine your motivations and actions through the years. We have a jury of Betazoid telepaths and empaths to verify your statements. Depending on your testimony today and their conclusions, you and your crew will be evaluated for re-integration into the current century. Do you understand and comply with the above, Mr. Singh?

Khan: Yes.

Yoi: Very well then, let us begin. Please state your full name and date of birth for the records.

Khan: Khan Noonien Singh. February 16th, 1967.

Yoi: Were you known by any other name in your lifetime? There aren’t even trace records of a Khan Noonien Singh till late July of 1972.

Khan: We were not allowed names till our fifth elimination.

Yoi: Elimination?

Khan: There were evaluations once a year to eliminate the undesirables among the augmented. Those found unsatisfactory were euthanized and autopsied for study. The rest were allowed to carry on. Any exhibition of individuality was strongly discouraged until after the fifth elimination, when we proved ourselves to be worthy of personal identity.

[There is a brief pause as the panel members digest that. Khan sits poised and blank, unruffled.]

Yoi: What were you called until then?

Khan: Gamma08.

Yoi [checking her PADD]: We have no records of such a naming system in the augment clinics.

Khan: If records of my generation of augments still exist, you will find me designated 160267G08. Labels for the specimens always followed the same pattern. Birth date, month and year, followed by the generation code.

Yoi: And you were of which generation?

Khan: Third.

Yoi: How many others were born in that generation?

Khan: The usual twenty five, but only ten of us cleared the first elimination.

Yoi [a brief pause]: Was that common? Such a high mortality rate?

Khan: Our generation was considered a great success at the time. The previous ones had only produced two or three satisfactory augments.

Yoi: And the other infants, the ones who didn’t make the grade, were…?

Khan: Eliminated. Yes.

[There is a longer pause. The panel members exhibit various states of distress and outrage while Khan is blank as ever, staring straight with a dispassionate gaze.]

Yoi [clears her throat]: You were named when you were five?

Khan: Our middle and surnames were given after the scientists who created us. The first names we were allowed to choose for ourselves or for each other.

[One of the betazoid telepaths leans forward and whispers something to Yoi]

Yoi: Who was the boy who chose your name?

[Khan’s expression falters, so brief it is gone one blink to the next. It wouldn’t have been noticeable at all, if not for his previous cool neutrality. He takes a deep, measured breath.]

Khan: Javed was a first generation augment, one of the two to survive. His sister Katia is still alive and sleeps with the rest of my crew.

Yoi [leaning forward]: But was he your friend?

[Khan’s eyes flash and his gaze goes sharper, flintier. There is no visible change in his expression but something about him goes from passive to dangerous. _Angry._ ]

Khan: You wish me to speak every last detail of my life? Very well, then. Javed was my friend. Perhaps my best friend. He became more, as we grew up. I loved him, for he was compassionate, loyal to a fault, and had a conscience.

[Khan’s eyes flicker for a moment to someone else on the dais, before snapping back to Yoi.]

Khan: He and Kati were our de facto leaders. They helped us discover our own ideals despite the rigorous conditioning at the hands of our scientists. Javed survived most of the evaluations through sheer intelligence and potential. But he lacked savagery; he refused to be used as a tool. [A longer pause. Deep even breaths]. He was eliminated in his final round. I was seventeen at the time, and devastated. Despite everything I had seen and experienced, that was the first loss that broke me, made me nearly lose control. Does that answer all your questions, _Councilor_?

[Yoi clears her throat again, visibly scrambling for her previous crisp professionalism]

Yoi: Why did you never rebel? Such cruelty… You were all superhuman, more intelligent and stronger than your creators.

Khan [scathingly]: But you, just like them, forget we were also _children_. We are not immune to pain, fear, and loneliness, Councilor. And as children, we had not yet learned to control it. We were all tagged with electric cuffs around our hands, ankles and necks, and we feared the punishment. We feared elimination. I was one of the oldest when Javed died. No matter my personal need for revenge, I had no desire to lead my people, some of whom were barely twelve, into a fight against the superior power of the Commune. Our best chance of survival at that point was to allow the Commune to control us and follow their wishes. So we did.

[He looks away, eyes focused unseeing on the far wall.]

Khan: When they created us, they wanted tools to fight their battles for them. And that is exactly what we became.

Yoi: The period between 1985 and 1993 is the best-documented among records we possess of your time.

Khan [smirking]: Of course it is. That was the time augments did deeds that humans decried as most ‘criminal’.

Yoi: But you don’t deny that you committed such acts?

Khan: No. Because that is what we were meant to do. What we had been _designed_ to do.

Yoi: And what exactly is that?

Khan: Bringing peace to a world that was destroying itself. Destroying the weeds to allow the worthy to survive.

Yoi [eyes flickering to Kirk]: You mean destroying those _you_ deemed inferior to give the ‘superior’ half a chance?

[Khan’s eyes focus briefly on Kirk as well, the slightest of frowns creasing his forehead. He turns back to Yoi.]

Khan: No. You try to hoist your own interpretations on my words, Councilor. That is not what I mean. It was not about inferior or superior. It was about corruption and innocence. Our ultimate mission was to destroy the deep roots of corruption to give humanity a chance to rebuild itself.

Yoi: You killed hundreds of thousands. Destroyed public administrative buildings, hospitals and religious sanctuaries. How are those the acts of rooting out corruption?

Khan: Public administrative buildings which were involved in sanctioning slave trade. Hospitals which were harboring known political criminals. Religious sanctuaries that served as a base for terrorism. The weeds of society. We plucked them out with no mercy, to bring civilization back to an uncivilized world.

Yoi: You can’t possibly expect us to believe everyone who died as a result of your actions was corrupt!

Khan [steadily]: Collateral damage.

Yoi: That is not a justification or an answer, Mr. Singh.

Khan: Yet it is the truth. We were given an objective. A purpose. Everything standing in the way was discarded if necessary.

Yoi: That is barbaric and unjust.

Khan [leaning forward with a vicious sneer]: So is creating a whole new race of sentient beings for the sole purpose of serving as weapons. So is waking a relic from the past to torture and blackmail and enslave, just to exploit his knowledge and power in war. That did not stop your _humans_ , did it now Councilor?

[There is another telling pause. Khan settles back into his perfect posture. Yoi scrolls through her PADD, seemingly unwilling to concede defeat on that point. The video cuts there, and then settles back in another part of the interview obviously farther along in the session.]

Yoi: It is widely agreed that the united offensive move in 1987 brought about augment rule worldwide.

Khan: While the result is true, the effort was anything but united. By that point, the Commune had sent two more groups of augments to overthrow governments. My people and I only concentrated on Eurasia, as we were trained to. We had very little to do with the victory of our kind in other parts of the world.

Yoi: So you mean to say the augments themselves were not united?

Khan: Of course we were not. Once I established my rule over Asia, I extended a hand of cooperation towards my counterparts in the Americas and Africa. The gesture was ignored.

Yoi: But your actions all mirrored one another, as though following one unified agenda.

Khan [lifting an eyebrow]: How so?

Yoi: Following the initial victory in overthrowing the existing government and establishing augment rule, the first executive action taken on every continent was to abolish the Commune.

Khan [smirking]: And would your first action on gaining freedom and power after a whole lifetime of torture be anything other than abolishing your oppressors, Councilor?

[Yoi pauses, turning to the Betazoid jury as though to confirm Khan’s truth on the matter. After a positive signal, she turns back to the prisoner.]

Yoi: Most of the genuine records of Augment atrocity are from the American and African continents. So you claim you and your people have no connection to that?

Khan: None at all. We established tyrannical rule over the humans, yes. We imposed our dictatorship on those we had defeated and conquered, yes. But we sought to unify, not to enslave and destroy. Under my rule with the aid of my crew, the entirety of Eurasia existed in peace and harmony for nearly a decade.

[Khan pauses, gaze turning unfocused and distant.]

Khan: If I am at fault at all, it is for not taking measures to abolish the unruly ones of our kind. I ruled one-quarter of Earth then, and two of my family presided over another fourth. I grew content and complacent with our half of the planet, unmindful of the suffering of the rest. That is the only act of which I consider myself guilty. And that is what brought about our eventual downfall.

Yoi: Your rule lasted from 1987 to 1996.

Khan: Yes.

Yoi: There are mentions in a few history books of you being married in that time?

Khan: Yes.

[Jim Kirk stiffens in his seat on the dais, his mouth falling open slightly. Commander Spock frowns at him before turning back to Khan, but nobody else seems to notice.]

Yoi [making a note in her PADD]: Is your partner asleep along with the rest of your crew?

[Khan flickers a confused glance towards Kirk, who looks rather unwell, before turning back to Yoi and answering.]

Khan: No. She is dead.

Yoi [looks up]: Oh. I am very sorry, Mr. Singh.

Khan: But you mean to poke and prod on the issue anyway, so why don’t we ignore the niceties and continue with your questioning?

Yoi [setting her jaw]: Which generation of augment was she?

Khan: None, seeing as she was human.

[Yoi blinks and turns to the jury again for confirmation. One of the telepaths nods. Khan rolls his eyes and sighs.]

Khan: I already told you, Councilor. I did not wage a war against humanity out of belief that they are inferior. I only sought to do as I was bid, and seized an opportunity when it presented itself, to ensure the freedom and well-being of my people.

Yoi [still looking surprised]: How… did you meet her?

Khan: Meera was a medical officer in one of the military bases we raided in north-east India in 1985. She demanded to be brought to me and negotiated handing over the three corrupt leaders we were there to seize, in exchange for the safety of everyone else. I told her I admired her spirit and courage. [He smiles, fond and bittersweet.] She told me if I paid no mind to the lives lost in my single-minded focus, I was no better than the corrupt system I was abolishing.

[Khan’s eyes flicker to the ground.]

Khan: We met again after my official instatement as ruler of Asia two years later. We were married within a few months and she became my most trusted advisor and confidante outside of my augment family.

Yoi: How did she die?

Khan [letting no emotion bleed through]: Meera and our twin children were captured by human rioters and executed.

Yoi: Your… your _children_?

[Khan stiffens even more in his seat. He looks moments away from jumping up and pacing like a caged animal, full of rage and hatred. But he takes a deep breath, visibly calming himself, eyes falling closed as he begins to speak.]

Khan: It was at the tail end of the Eugenics Wars. Those wars… Your history paints it as being fought between the evil augments and the righteous humans. But that is a lie. There were three main factions in those wars – augments who wished to abolish the human race, humans who wished to do the same to the augments, and us, augments and humans fighting together to preserve the tenuous peace we’d established. It was a brutal time.

[Silence falls as Khan gathers his thoughts to narrate the rest.]

Khan: Towards the end, I realized that the war was no longer something I could win. The net was closing in on our side, and betrayal was rife even among those I considered loyal to me. The only people I could trust were my family. I designed the cryotubes with their aid and we planned to leave the planet that’d brought us nothing but suffering once and for all in seven months’ time. We were only delaying it for so long because Meera was six months pregnant. I was not sure of the effects of cryostasis on an unborn child and she absolutely refused to accompany us until the baby was born.

[His eyes open again after a minute and the anguish in them is plain for all to see, but his voice remains flat, dead.]

Khan: Three months before our planned departure, we were tempted forth on a false lead, led on a wild goose chase. Halfway there we realized the ruse, but it was already too late. We arrived back in time to watch my four year old son and daughter burn to ashes, and my pregnant wife beheaded.

[Horrified silence as they all listen to Khan’s tale. One of the younger telepaths retches slightly in her seat before hastily leaving the room.]

Khan: But where I failed and crumbled, my crew was quick-thinking. Kati and Joachin managed to save my unborn son before he died inside his mother. We named him Amar. His was the smallest cryotube I designed, smaller even than those made for the rest of the children. And on the date we had chosen, ninety-six of us set forth on the _USS Botany Bay_ , three fewer than we’d hoped and dreamt.

[Kirk looks sick and horrified beyond measure, and even Spock’s unflinching stoicism shows cracks. Yoi appears to be out of words – the interrogation has obviously veered far out of its original purpose, to expose the vile underbelly of the human victory in that era.]

Yoi: There – there are only 72 cryotubes.

Khan: Twelve of my crew members lost their lives at Marcus’s hands, in his failed attempts to revive them. He informed me that the row containing the eleven children had failed in its life support, and all that remained of them was their rotting corpses when he retrieved the rest of us. [His face goes dark, settled in a fearsome, all-consuming hatred] He took a rather gleeful joy in revealing that to me after four months of extorting my cooperation by threatening to harm the children. [His gaze settles on Kirk, steady and remorseless] I wish I had made his death last longer.

[Kirk meets his gaze, just as unflinching. But what is strange is that there is no hint of horror or revulsion in Kirk’s face at the sentiment Khan just stated. In fact, he almost looks like he _understands_. The video cuts off from there once again, settling finally on what is obviously the closing of the interrogation.]

 Yoi: I now declare the interrogation closed. The report shall be analyzed by the Federation council and the future of you and your people shall be decided. Until then, you are to remain in Starfleet custody, Mr. Singh.

[Khan nods once, regal as the emperor he once was.]

Yoi [hesitating]: While it is unusual and highly unprofessional for the interrogators to express views on the official log, I find myself compelled to apologize for the atrocities you and your people faced at the hands of humanity, and later, Marcus. Due to his deeds, Starfleet and the Federation also stand guilty by association, and that shall not be forgotten while we consider your plight. True justice will be awarded to you and your crew.

Khan [nodding once more]: I shall hold you to that.

Yoi: As rightly you should. Session dismissed.

[The nine guards reappear, flanking around Khan once more. Khan stands and allows himself to be herded back to his holding cell.

At the door, he turns a brief glance back at Kirk, expression inscrutable. A beat of charged silence. Abruptly, he turns his back to the dais and exits. The door closes shut with a dull boom behind him and the video feed cuts off.]

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a one-off angsty piece but actually serves a purpose for future plot-building, I promise. Eager to hear your thoughts on this, as always! :)xx
> 
> Also, a million thanks to [NurseDarry](http://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry) for taking time from her weekend to help me get this together and suggesting edits and generally being an awesome cheerleader, beta and listening ear to sound off to. Thank you <3


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